First Stop Health Secures $2.1M Funding to Expand Telehealth Access for Employers

First Stop Health, based in Chicago, is a telehealth company founded in 2011 by Ken Anderson, Dr. Mark Friedman, and Patrick Spain. The company provides 24/7 telephone and online health consultation services, aiming to address the dual challenges of difficult access to care and high healthcare costs in the United States, thereby offering patients prompt, convenient, and affordable medical services.

The company recently announced the completion of a $2.1 million financing round. The lead investors in this round included Patrick Spain, one of the company’s co-founders, and Dr. Mark Friedman, along with other angel investors from previous rounds. With this latest infusion, First Stop Health’s total funding has reached $5.6 million.

“Patient advocacy (PA)” refers to an organization or individual that advocates for the professionalized management and services for patients, healthcare professionals, and other groups and industries related to health and medical care. Spain stated that the idea of founding a company came to him after he became involved in PA work.

“For family reasons, I needed to learn about a rare disease,” said Spain. “Chicago is home to two of the nation’s top research hospitals. I specifically consulted their oncologists, only to find that they knew almost nothing about this condition. They told me, ‘We have indeed heard of this disease, but we don’t know which physician can treat it or where patients can seek care.’ This experience sparked my interest in Physician Associates (PAs). The challenge for PAs lies in the need to conduct extensive research to determine who can treat the disease and where to access the necessary resources.”

Spain aimed to establish a company to provide patients with better healthcare services. At the outset, he and his partner, Friedman, felt they lacked a robust business model. The two then considered adopting remote access solutions to serve patients who did not require in-person hospital visits for medical care.

“In the United States, there are one billion patient visits to specialists, primary care physicians, and pediatricians each year,” said Spain. “In fact, 70% of patients do not actually need a physical examination; they simply need to discuss their symptoms and condition with their physician, who can then make a diagnosis and, if necessary, issue a prescription.”

First Stop Health primarily serves businesses, most of which have between 500 and 5,000 employees. You can complete a medical information form and send it to First Stop Health, or call 800 to have a customer service representative assist you in filling out the form and then request an online callback. Within minutes, a physician will consult with you about your condition, provide a diagnosis, and prescribe medication if necessary. First Stop’s physicians only accept patients with non-emergency conditions, such as pink eye, rashes, and ear infections.

First Stop Health offered video consultations in 2014 and the first half of 2015. In the second half of 2015, the company shifted from relying on third-party physicians to managing its operations in-house. While third-party providers had delivered services via video consultations, First Stop Health has decided not to add its own video consultation system at this time. The company has chosen to discontinue video consultations unless it can identify ways to improve the system to provide greater convenience for patients.

“The service that makes patients feel most comfortable is likely telephone consultation,” said Spain. “Ninety-nine out of 100 patients prefer consulting their doctors by phone. Unlike the process of scheduling an appointment, logging into an account, and then engaging in a dialogue, making a phone call takes only a few minutes. Moreover, if the home Wi-Fi connection is unstable, video consultations may encounter issues such as dropped connections. Therefore, it is quite challenging to conduct the entire doctor consultation process via video.”

The company will use the funds to improve First Stop’s physician management model. Spain explained that the company’s approach to managing physicians is similar to how Uber manages its drivers, influenced by factors such as ratings, availability, and location. The company will also use the funds to enhance its customer platform, enabling businesses to better control service delivery methods and target clientele.

By Chen Kun |

Editor: Zheng Qi